[Apr 15, 2021] Spring Steam Up 2021 (Severn Valley Railway)

Don't like how HRM had to spill the beans before the railway even announces it.

 

Are they sponsoring the event though and if they are those with a subscription will know before the mag goes on sale to the public.
And also 2999 was supposed to be making an appearance this time last year, it’s not that much of a surprise thinking about it.

 

Haven't seen let alone heard if they are sponsoring it. But they would of said if it was anyway.

 

Which ‘they’ are you on about? The SVR or the mag?

 

Have you got a photo of the announcement on HR?

 

It mysteriously disappeared from the SVR Facebook group from whence I presume @gwalkeriow saw it this morning, as did I. So perhaps someone jumped the gun somewhere along the way.

 

Thanks Pete for that

 

yes that’s where I saw it, as you say its now disappeared.

 

Try and drum up interest on SVR Facebook for two days then after two hours spend all your time deleting every reference posted about 2999/HR mag says so as nobody thought although goes on sale Friday subscribers /online version available before the big announcement.

 

Not seeing a problem here at all - many of us here would surely have bet good money on 2999 being the 'special guest' - it isnt unexpected and will be a major attraction regardless of when news 'goes public'. The fact that the SVR have some advance positive PR has got to be a bonus.

If the 'big surprise' had been that the SVR had been given 46235 on loan and they had secretly restored it to steam during lockdown and HR had jumped the gun with a scoop - well then there would be something to complain about.

 

I just find how HRM leaking it early is just unusual. Hope no one got "offended" by my own opinion on it. But any publicity is good publicity either way. Truth be told I wasn't actually expecting it to be "Lady of Legend" - the reason behind this thought was complicated and I can't be bothered either way to explain it. But regardless, 2999 was amazing on the times I have seen it in steam already. I look forward to travelling behind her on the Saturday afternoon up Eardington Bank amongst the other six locomotives rostered in particular the Hall. Hotel has already been booked and I hope to book a second day travelling behind the locomotives after next weeks impending Bo Jo announcement.

 

Booked when went on sale ,with the hope of 2999 ,which was an educated guess of VIP meant person and ruling out just about every alternative and also any link to the Saphos tour .

 

For what it's worth, if you type "Heritage Railway" into Amazon, as I did just now, the very first result is the Kindle edition of the magazine, complete with a clear picture of the front cover with the 2999 news splashed all over it. So realistically the chance of keeping it quiet once subscriber editions started to go out was nil. I am a little surprised nobody thought of that, but frankly there's an awful lot for SVR people to think about for the moment so I certainly won't complain.

You can debate the rights and wrongs of the news coming out like this, but I doubt it will do the railway or this event any harm. Possibly the reverse. I had thought about the possibility of 2999 being the guest but thought it might be a hope too far. As I've said, I personally may find April too early to travel again, even if the event does go ahead as planned, but for those who do go I'm sure 2999's appearance will be a big draw and rightly so.

 

Heritage Railway didn’t leak it though, same as Steam Railway didn’t leak the Beavertail images the other week, subscribers to those mags just got the info a bit earlier than those who don’t. I don’t think anyone’s offended, it’s just not that big a deal especially with how quickly information can be get round these days.
Look at 69001 having its test run at the same railway yesterday, I think that was around 16:45 less than 12 hours later the world and his dog knows.

 

I guess the difference is there wasn't a big reveal livestreamed on YouTube planned for the Beavertail, the Steam Railway article was the big reveal, whereas it was supposed to be the SVR that did the big announcement rather than HR. Sounds like more a date cock-up with someone forgetting about subscribers getting it early, otherwise I expect the SVR livestream would have happened yesterday rather than Thursday.

 

Was there a big reveal planned for YouTube? I didn’t know that. As you say someone’s cocked up somewhere.